Joys of J (ep.24)
🧠 What Website is Blowing My Mind
Dan’s Covid Charts (S/O- Krissy!)
Data visualization of Covid cases across the US from June till now. You’d be hard pressed to not notice the strong covid/political correlation… #ISeeSoMuchRed
June 1, 2020 👇
November 11, 2020 👇
📝 What Post Has My Attention
We might benefit from approaching mental health like we invest in anything else in our lives (finances, relationships, careers, physical health, etc), where one builds wealth in this area by continuous, conscious investment.
I think it’s time for us to view mental health in that same light, something I call “Mental Wealth” rather than mental health… where it’s not a term synonymous with illness, but is an area in which even the mentally healthiest of us can still pay close attention. Can still invest in. And can increasingly raise our consciousnesses around (for ourselves and those around us), when “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It goes from a lens of “fixing” to “investing” — in other words, instead of fixing something that is by implication broken, it’s investing in its durability to withstand the wear and tear that comes with modern life. And this begins well before the internal or external life-interrupting event itself (in fact, that is the whole point).
Why has our medical system conventionally only cared about acute care when something goes wrong? It’s because the Western medical system evolved from medical treatments during warfare. In 2020, our medical system is phenomenal at acute interventions like surgery, and this is because the first medical professionals were surgeons saving a soldier’s life (or fixing a less terminal issue) so they could fight again in the next battle. 150 years ago, there was no consultation with the village doctor on prevention of disease. There was no discussion with a scientifically informed expert on approaches to optimal health or longevity. It was on the basis of… “I have a problem. Can you fix it?” This is in contrast to Eastern approaches like Ayurvedic medicine that is primarily focused on prevention versus cure, and though it is not well understood by Western medicine (and lacks the amazing progress we’ve made on acute treatments among other favorable comparisons towards Western medicine), it predates our mainstream medical acknowledgment of diet, exercise, and lifestyle by a few thousand years (going back as far as 6,000 BCE). You’d have to ask a scholar of why they were so attuned to this “investment” versus “fixing” attitude 8,000 years ago, but it may have something to do with the Hindu tradition of revering the human form as an expression of God (versus something akin to a proto-slavery culture in the Judeo-historical sense or the “inherently broken compared to the perfection of God” in the classical Christian viewpoint. After all, before there was a medical profession, it was the village priest or rabbi that one saw for assistance with an ailment, be it physical or mental).
📚 What Book is Moving Me
Thanks to my lovely sister-cousin Krissy K (double shout out this episode) for putting this one in my hands and into my heart ❤️.
Cleo Wade- Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life
Cleo Wade has an incredible talent at portraying a universe worth of raw emotion and wisdom in every single sentence she writes. A truly poetic guide in how to navigate the waves we are all riding in this life. Could not recommend more!
🎙️ What Podcast Episode I Loved
Armchair Expert w/ Dax Shepard - Yuval Harari Returns
If your ears need more, these posts have huge lists of recommended crowdsourced episodes to give a listen to.
👀 What Concept Has My Attention
RadReads - How to Design the Perfect Day
“Tim Urban has a simple equation for measuring happiness.”
“The formula shows us how our happiness (and ultimately our lives) teeter on a razor thin equilibrium. When our expectations are too high, reality fails to keep pace. (Happiness, negative.) But do you want to live in a world of lowered expectations, just so that reality can clear this reduced threshold?”
“Most enjoyable activities are not natural; they demand an effort that initially one is reluctant to make. But once the interaction starts to provide feedback to the person’s skills, it usually begins to be intrinsically rewarding.”
If we return to Tim Urban’s formula, you’ll find that even with all these tactics the tendency to beat yourself up for not “doing enough” will endure. And as you shut that laptop and power down your phone at the end of day, throw everything you just read in this article and replace it with a few simple questions:
Why am I actually doing this work?
In a decade, what would I regret not having enjoyed more?
Did I show up for the people I love the most?
🎨 What Art I’m Digging
Sarah Bahbah - Sex and Takeout
“Sarah Bahbah, the Palestinian, Australian-raised artist crystallises the universal but rarely captured experience of oversaturated, intense feelings and imperfect relationships. Her protagonists give voice to the vast spectrum of emotion, spanning the desire for inner peace, true love, fear of commitment, playful ambivalence towards life and the paradox of wanting intimacy but craving isolation.Known for her explicit exploration into the intimate psyche of millennial women, Bahbah empowers her audience to embrace indulgence and self-love in all its forms. Smashing the stereotype of female emotion being a hindrance, her storytelling harnesses the power of breaking taboo and celebrates the liberation of transparency and desire.”
I mean…. pizza, plants, fresh sheets.. show me a better trifecta!
Copyright © 2020 Sarah Bahbah
❤️ What Quotes I Love Right Now
“How to inject more gratitude into your day- Think about something you have now that you used to wish for.” - Robin Arzon
“Many people delay taking action because they hope to avoid suffering. They keep searching for a path that won’t involve pain or sacrifice or tradeoffs. But some form of suffering is always inevitable. The process of taking action is the process of choosing your pain.” - James Clear
“Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find you’re here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.” - Eckhart Tolle
“Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not "yours," not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that comes and goes is you.” - Eckhart Tolle
"Look closely at the present you are constructing. It should look like the future you are dreaming." - Alice Walker
🥟 What Product I Love
Just a tad bias but…..announcing the release of the…..
Little Dumplings Holiday Gift Bundle 📖 🥟 🎁
Get your favorite little dumpling the holiday gift of diversity with this bundle!